Pages

Friday, March 1, 2013

Fearless Females - Favorite Female Ancestor

Lisa Alzo of The Accidental Genealogist blog is running her Fearless Females: 31 Blogging Prompts to Celebrate Women’s History Month series again. This was one of the first set of prompts that I did on my blog in 2011 and I thought it would be interesting to go back through them and see how much I've learned. For some of the prompts, I will post updated information and for others, I will post something new.

March 1 — Do you have a favorite female ancestor? One you are drawn to or
want to learn more about? Write down some key facts you have already
learned or what you would like to learn and outline your goals and
potential sources you plan to check.

In 2011, I posted about my two grandmothers, Anna Lee Pulskamp Creeden and Edna Willis Councill. This year, I'm choosing an ancestor that I didn't even know about in 2011.

I can't really choose a favorite, but one ancestor that I want to learn more about is Julia Creedan. Julia took the name Sister Mary Felix when she took her vows with the Sisters of Charity in 1872. That information helped me find her death certificate which gave both of her parents' names and a date of birth. With the parents' names and date of birth, I was able to find a transcription of her baptismal certificate. She was baptized as a Roman Catholic on July 3, 1842 in Carricapooka in the parish of
Clondrohid, Ireland. Her parents were Patrick Creedan and Mary Coakley.

I believe that Julia is the brother of my 2x great-grandfather Timothy Creeden, so it was exciting to not only find a sibling for my Irish ancestor, but parents' names and a location!

One thing I've discovered about my female ancestors is that many of them worked outside of the home. Julia is a good example of this since she worked for many years as a nun, nurse, and teacher.